October 12, 2007

Bogus Campaign Issues

Up here in Virginia, we have all sorts of political go-getters who wanna be on the Hill in D.C. They come up with issues that really are non-starters and work the ads until they have a group of people convinced that the sky actually is falling. One of these issues is illegal immigration. Their reasoning goes like this as far as I can tell: "people need to pay into the system before they can get benefits." But surely that logic goes for all of us. If we don't pay into the system -- and you cannot tell me that we all pay the same percentage, then do we deserve the $$ we get out of the system? Ummm, well, that varies depending on the political party that is complaining about illegal immigration. There certainly is a huge demographic shift up here in Virginia. Manassas, for instance, is saturated with Hispanics. Billboards are in Spanish, ditto restaurants, ditto banks.

That's cause for alarm here in the Virginia Piedmont. Heck, many of the residents just outside the beltway are only a veneer away from the Civil War. Route 50 West turns into the Stonewall Jackson Highway. No mention of Route 50 at all. So savvy politicos play on the fears of these folks and sadly they are finding a large audience. Personally, I feel we should allow the illegal immigrants work towards their place here in the country.

Even more personally, I don't believe we have an illegal immigrant problem. We have a problem accepting people who are hard workers. Sure, the huge influx of refugees (economic or otherwise) has brought with it the criminal element. But that criminal element is already here in the U.S. We just call it poor white trash or mafia or whatever else seems to fit the day. And for those ethnics like WASPs who don't believe they have a criminal element, we have folks like Lorena Bobbitt or the bigger fish we call the managers of Enron. My point is that bad people come in all ethnics, all shades, all income levels. To exclude one group because of paper work makes me cringe.

My family came over here back in the 1720s or earlier (that is not bragging folks that is just fact). Paperwork? Legal? Heck, we didn't even have our legal surname of MacGregor. We had to skedaddle out of Scotland because there was a death sentence on anyone with that name. We became criminals in Scotland for backing the wrong side in the Rob Roy MacGregor/Bonnie Prince Charlie uprising. "Children of the Mist" MacGregors were cattle thieves according to the Duke of Montrose. Go figure. So who is to say who is a criminal today? You? Me? Let's just see and meanwhile let's not be too hasty to condemn those who don't speak the same way we do. It is morally and ethically wrong. People in glass houses should not cast stones. But if you believe the politicians? I feel sorry for you.